Once I hear John Paesano and Braden Kimball’s “Daredevil” theme, I’m immediately transported.
“Marvel‘s Daredevil” premiered 10 years in the past on Netflix, when all the pieces in regards to the violent, tortured sequence was refreshing. Blood dripped from our hero’s wounds and from the photographs within the title sequence, depicted in opposition to a haunting piano melody. The phrase “gritty” was run into the bottom for good purpose, and I had that rattling theme music on a loop.
The Disney+ incarnation from Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman, and Chris Ord is aware of precisely what labored in regards to the Netflix sequence, and wastes little time delivering on all of that. The primary episode alone comprises a visceral battle in a darkish hallway, filmed as one take; fixed and gratuitous mentions of Hell’s Kitchen; and naturally, the return of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) who has allegedly left behind his legal previous — as absolutely as Matt (Charlie Cox) parted methods with Daredevil’s masks.
Not like a lot of latest Marvel, there are precise stakes with “Daredevil: Born Once more” proper from the start. This was all the time a hero whose wounds left scars, and whose dedication to — or dependence on — his masked mission each opposed and aided his beliefs. As a lot because the nine-episode sequence follows an total adventure-of-the-week construction (highlights embrace a courtroom drama and vacation heist), Matt’s ache and persona are by no means removed from the floor, simply as his predators lurk round each nook.
Cox slides again into taking part in the “actually good lawyer” like he by no means left (in equity, he didn’t have an excessive amount of day without work earlier than a cameo in 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Method Dwelling,” adopted by a visitor position on “She-Hulk: Lawyer at Regulation” in 2022), from his soft-spoken exterior (the actual masks!) to the sharp physicality of stunt work. Even in Matt’s signature tinted glasses, you possibly can inform when the character switches from compassion to ferocity, a practical teaser for the following scene or sequence. In a multiverse of latest and infrequently uninteresting heroes, Cox is a life raft.
The place the unique sequence had a core solid together with Deborah Ann Woll as Karen and Elden Henson as Foggy, “Born Once more” is generally the two-hander of Cox and D’Onofrio, residing conspicuously mirrored and dissatisfying lives that decision them again to their previous vocations. That parallel is often illustrated by means of intercut scenes held collectively by propulsive string music from The Newton Brothers — blunt, possibly, but additionally extraordinarily satisfying (and proper out of Christopher Nolan’s Darkish Knight Trilogy playbook). Fisk’s personal arc is notably slower, and each are pretty apparent, however they intertwine whereas making participating detours with White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes), Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), and the mysterious killer often called Muse.
With the Marvel machine being what it’s in the present day, it’s not truthful to activity “Born Once more” with saving a cinematic universe. Showrunner Scardapane and his staff solely must persuade us that Daredevil matches into the present Section and make a case for him to stay round — and for that, they’ve a extremely good lawyer.
Grade: B
The primary two episodes of “Daredevil: Born Once more” are actually streaming on Disney+, with new episodes weekly.